The Board has remanded the claims due to insufficient medical evidence and the need for a VA medical opinion regarding the etiology of the Veteran's esophageal squamous cell cancer and lung cancer, which are presumed to be related to herbicide exposure.
The deciding factor: The Board lacks sufficient medical evidence to render a decision on the claims as esophageal squamous cell cancer is not one of the presumptive diseases related to Agent Orange exposure, but service connection may still be established if it was related to the Veteran's presumed herbicide agent exposure.
- Claimed conditions
- esophageal squamous cell cancer, lung cancer
- How they argued it
- Not specified
- Exposure basis
- Agent Orange / herbicides
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- June 4, 2019
- Citation
- 19143058
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,240 · Granted: 28% (granted or partly granted, in the vetted decisions on this site)
Judge attribution: 2025 complete; earlier years partial.
This is a plain-language summary generated by AI from a public Board of Veterans’ Appeals decision. It can contain errors — always verify against the original. Look up the original decision on VA.gov (opens in a new tab) using citation 19143058.
What this means for you
A remand is not a loss. The Board sent the case back for more development — often a new exam or missing records — before making a final decision. Many remands later end in a grant, and the decision spells out exactly what the Board wanted to see.
What you can do next
Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Granted
The Veteran's claim for a higher evaluation of his service-connected chronic fatigue and weakness due to chemotherapy and radiation treatment for lung cancer is granted, with an evaluation of 60 percent.,The Veteran's claim for a compensable rating for residuals of lung cancer from May 1, 2005 is denied.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has decided to remand the case due to a need for further evaluation of the Veteran's lung cancer and its relationship to service, including any in-service granuloma.
- Dismissed
The Board has vacated its decisions granting service connection for lung cancer and remanding issues of tinnitus and TDIU, but the Veteran's death means these appeals are dismissed.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the Veteran's claims for service connection for kidney cancer and lung cancer due to a lack of adequate medical opinion regarding the etiology of his kidney cancer, which is presumed to be related to herbicide exposure. The claim for lung cancer is inextricably intertwined with the kidney cancer claim.
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